COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Cotabato City is keeping two high-profile drug suspects arrested this week under heavy guard.
Large-scale drug traffickers Raffy Osama and Mohammad Tuankali Macalimpas, said to be a member of the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, are now awaiting prosecution for possession of methamphetamine hydrochloride.
"They are both under heavy guard. These two are included in the list of our high-value targets," Juvenal Azurin, director of PDEA-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday. He said the arrests were made with the help of the suspects' friends and relatives who tipped the authorities off.
Osama was arrested on Wednesday in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao in a buy-bust by PDEA-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao agents. They recovered P2.5 million worth of shabu from him.
Macalimpas was nabbed last Tuesday in nearby Pigcawayan town in Cotabato province — commonly called North Cotabato — while in the act of selling P2.5 million worth of shabu to PDEA-ARMM personnel disguised as drug dependents.
Osama and Macalimpas have been charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
© Philstar.com PDEA-ARMM agents examine firearms and drugs seized in an operation. Philstar.com/John Unson, file
Azurin said Macalimpas will also be prosecuted for possession of an unlicensed pistol.
"We are not taking chances. They are both being guarded well. Extensive security measures are in place considering that they were among our high-value targets. The long hand of the law has reached them finally," Azurin said.